Azov POW Oleksandr Maksymchuk sentenced to 20 years recounts torture in Taganrog pre‑trial detention centre

On December 5, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 30-year-old Oleksandr Maksymchuk, a prisoner of war from Ukraine’s Azov Special Operations Brigade, to 20 years in a maximum-security penal colony.

Maksymchuk was tried on charges of participating in a terrorist community and undergoing training for terrorist activities—standard accusations levelled against captured Azov fighters in Russia.

Junior Sergeant Maksymchuk was taken prisoner in May 2022, when he and other Ukrainian soldiers left the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. Initially, he was held in the former Volnovakha penal colony No. 120 in Olenivka, which had been converted into a filtration camp at the start of the war. Maksymchuk was there on the night of July 29, 2022, when an explosion killed at least 48 prisoners of war.

In autumn 2022, he was transferred to pre-trial detention centre No. 2 (SIZO-2) in Taganrog, southern Russia.

Oleksandr Maksymchuk’s case was submitted to the Southern District Military Court on July 1, 2024. Several months earlier, in the spring, he had been transferred to Rostov-on-Don.

In court, the prisoner immediately stated that he did not admit his guilt and spoke of the torture, including starvation, he had been subjected to in SIZO-2. In August, Maksymchuk was transferred back to Taganrog—ostensibly because SIZO-5 in Rostov was overcrowded.

Maksymchuk appeared at hearings via video link twice; each time he asked to be brought to court in person. Visible signs of beating were apparent on the Ukrainian’s face.

On October 17, he asked Judge Pavel Gubarev to call an ambulance to the detention centre.

“Your Honour, I request, if possible, to call me an ambulance—I have a headache, have nausea, it looks like a concussion, I also have haematomas on my forehead, under my eye and on my left arm, I want to be examined by a doctor,” Maksymchuk said via video link.

The court eventually ruled to ensure the defendant’s personal participation in the proceedings. He was taken to SIZO-1 in Rostov-on-Don. After a hearing on November 12, he was returned to Taganrog, and then transferred back to Rostov again.

On December 2, a Mediazona reporter arrived at the court—and the judge closed the hearing, citing security concerns for the participants in the proceedings and their relatives.

On December 5, the court announced the verdict in an open hearing—20 years in a maximum-security penal colony. Before the hearing began, the state prosecutor asked Maksymchuk: “Will you appeal, or do you want to be exchanged sooner?” The prisoner of war replied that he intended to appeal the verdict. “Long live the court—the most humane court in the world, eh?” the prosecutor quipped, citing a famous Soviet-era comedy.

After the verdict, in a brief conversation with a Mediazona reporter, Maksymchuk confirmed that he intended to file an appeal.

“I don’t agree with the court’s decision and I will appeal it. Because I consider myself an innocent person who has been prosecuted. I’m a soldier, I was carrying out the orders of Ukraine, the state. I regret nothing, I repent nothing,” he said.

The prisoner of war added that in Taganrog “every conceivable and inconceivable method of pressure was used” against him.

“During this time, I was tortured twice, beaten, and also subjected to psychological pressure with the use of special equipment, namely, portable tazers,” he said. “This was all done to make me recognise the Azov unit as a terrorist organisation, which it is not, and I’m sure I’ll be able to prove that in the future.”

Maksymchuk cited the Russian Supreme Court ruling recognising Azov as a “terrorist organisation”—AKPI22-411s—and confidently said that it would be overturned.

He then spoke about a Russian citizen named Sergei, whom he met in SIZO-2 in Taganrog. Speaking his final words in court, Sergei had said: “Glory to Ukraine.” He was then tortured into repeating: “Glory to Russia.” Maksymchuk heard these screams.

“I’m very grateful to him for that, for his conscious civic position,” the Ukrainian added. “Despite the fact that he is a citizen of the Russian Federation, he supports my country in this situation; he’s a great guy, I respect him for that.”

The prisoner of war also spoke of other instances of torture in SIZO-2.

“There were two cases that occurred in 2022, namely, the infliction of grievous bodily harm on my friend and cellmate Pavlo Semenenko, who was beaten during interrogation. He suffered a closed pneumothorax. He was taken to hospital, where he received medical attention. At the moment, I don’t know where he is—I hope he’s been exchanged and he’s all right,” Maksymchuk said.

Maksymchuk also spoke of the torture he endured in court during the open proceedings.

At a hearing on November 19, he recounted that after being returned to Taganrog from Rostov, he was tortured with electric shocks, beaten with water pipes, fists, and feet, his eyes and hands bound with tape, and suspended upside down. He lost consciousness several times during the ordeal. The prisoner was pressured to confess his guilt in court, “repent,” and dismiss his lawyer.

Within hours of the verdict, Maksymchuk was once again transferred to Taganrog. According to him, he receives no letters or parcels in the detention centre—although other inmates do.

“I don’t really have much to lose,” he told a Mediazona reporter. “I’ve been in detention for more than two and a half years; I’m so used to it that I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a free man, walking down the street. I don’t know what people do. Have phones, laptops, a house, a dog… A family.”

At home, Oleksandr Maksymchuk is awaited by his wife and his son, born in 2019.

Editor: Dmitry Tkachev